You know how mom is always telling me about all the adventures my sister Katie and she had? And how just because I like being home the best I might be missing out on fun stuff?
What you talkin’ about, mom?
Well, after being at dog trials the last couple of weekends I’ve decided maybe I don’t have to bark all the time when I’m in the car. And mom and dad decided that mom should build on that realization that not all car rides end up in scary places.
I guess this isn’t so bad.
So all week mom’s been taking me on what she calls ‘ventures’ and we’ve been driving further and further from home. One day she even drove me ‘up north’ to a rest stop! It was really pretty!
Rest stops have the best pee-mail!
A couple days ago she took me to TWO parks! OK, one was to get me to go to the bathroom, cause I’d been boycotting my own front yard. It was sort of rainy and mom just wanted me to do my business so we could be on our way. But there was this pretty yellow tree with all these yellow leaves under it and, well, you know mom. I had to sit in them.
Is this the pose you want, mom?
And then mom noticed as she was taking pictures with her phone (cause she forgot to bring her big camera) that I looked up at the tree. She thought it was cute.
What the heck?
But if you look close at the next image you’ll see I looked up because a leaf fell on my head! A leaf fell on my head, people, and I just sat there like a good girl, cause my mom told me to sit!
Seriously, mother?
Then I tried to walk up to my mom to get the leaf off my head! And she started to laugh at me!
This is embarrassing.
And she wanted to get a picture (she didn’t realize she already had a picture) and told me to sit again and the leaf slid down my face!
Get it off of me, mom!!
I didn’t like it, I didn’t like it one bit. Mom says she’s sorry she laughed at me and that I’m adorable and she loves me and everything. But still.
Then we went to the next park. By then it was really raining. But we went for a long walk in the woods anyway.
Remember when I was a baby and the woods scared me?
That was kind of fun. I got to sniff a whole lot of good stuff. Did you know things in the woods smell better in the rain? Part of our walk was in the woods, and part of it was on a service road.
I think these woods match me pretty good!
We didn’t see anybody else out there. Probably because it was really raining. But I didn’t care, and mom didn’t seem to care either
Bet you can’t even see me I’m moving so fast!
We had a really good time that day and I didn’t even mind that I’ve been late for supper the last two days in a row.
I think fall is my favorite season.
Yesterday I went to a park to meet a friend of mom and that lady’s two dogs. I got to run and mom couldn’t get one decent picture of my new friends and me running.
The small but mighty little guy could run really fast!
Don’t tell mom, but I think I’m starting to like this car ride thing. You just never know where you’ll end up!
I love October, and I love Robin’s Walktober. I’ve been joining in for many years and I always look forward to posting about some adventure that I’ve done especially for this post.
It was a beautiful day with streaky blue skies and hazy sunlight.
If I’m totally transparent, this was actually a drive rather than a walk. But all is fair in love and Walktobers.
Some of the refuge is flooded in water, other parts are huge meadows where fox and deer play.
For this year’s Walktober I visited the Shiawasee National Wildlife Refuge, which is about an hour north of me and just 5 miles north of Frankenmuth Michigan. There’s hiking trails along the dikes that manage the water and a motor drive around the perimeter of the portion of the park that’s public.
There was a little bit of color along the beginning of the drive.
The drive is only open from June 1 to September 30 every year. So, being totally transparent, this Drivetober was actually done on September 30. Not even in October!
Early afternoon, the cormorants and egrets were napping.
Still I think Robin will stretch the rules for me this one time. I hope.
This egret was a touch miffed to be bothered during his nap.
On the drive you’re not allowed to just stop wherever you want. But people do, for the fleeting moment it takes to grab a photo, especially if no one is behind you.
Big stretch after lunch.
There are a couple of spots designed to pull off the road, but rarely is there anything you want to see from those spots. The drive is mainly on the top of the dykes, with water on either side, so you don’t have a lot of options.
Sometimes you need to pay attention to stuff a lot closer than those egrets way out in the water.
I’ve been known to drive the 6 mile loop twice during a visit. I haven’t been up there for the last couple years so I was excited to see what I’d find.
I was specifically looking for pelicans.
It’s all about territory and who gets to stand where.
Mostly I saw egrets (big white birds) and blue herons (big grey blue birds) and lots of little unidentified birds.
Great blue heron taking off because I stopped to get his picture.
If I’m honest it was mostly egrets. I’ve always had trouble photographing egrets because they’re all white and so often end up blown out in a photograph where the camera sets the shutter speed for the rest of the image.
Not to be left behind, the egret followed the heron.
I shot 1800 images. As you can imagine, some are not so good.
There was something to see no matter which side you were scanning.
But I weeded it down to 130 images that I’m mostly pleased about.
Not pelicans though I thought they might be when I first saw a bunch of white birds.
And no, I’m not going to subject you to 130 pictures of egrets. I’ll try to pick the best or most interesting, but sometimes I might slip one in that has a soft focus because it was the best I could get. I hope you’ll understand.
Along the side of the road were shrubs and grasses which sometimes made a pretty frame for the subject. Sometimes they were just in the way.
I can say most of these birds were a really really long way from the car.
Fishing is a full time job out here.
I think I want a 600m lens for a photo shoot like this. Especially if I’m in a car and not lugging it four miles through the woods. Which, if I’m honest, isn’t very often.
Sometimes lunch comes in small packages.
Maybe I should rent one on the few occasions I got back up to the drive. Anyway…as I said I was mostly looking for pelicans.
Bet most of you don’t know that Michigan even has pelicans. I didn’t either until I started seeing photographs of them out at this magical place. And I don’t always find them at all.
Jackpot! About ten pelicans very very very far away. They looked like white dots without the camera.
But I found them, far off in the middle of the water, mere specks with my naked eye. And of course, like most of the rest of the birds I’d seen that day, they took off as soon as I stopped the car.
Pelicans plus a sandhill crane and a seagull.
It was a thrill to see them, and once I had, I felt the trip was worthwhile. Even though I didn’t see one bald eagle.
They landed just a little bit up the shore, so I guess I wasn’t all that scary.
I headed toward the exit smiling…when suddenly….
Mr and Mrs. wood duck
…wood ducks! The side of the drive was tall with grasses, so it was hard to get a shot. I thought I’d maybe just step out of the car to get above the grass…
Beautiful in flight or on the water.
…but of course they flew instantly. That’s OK, I found these 3 guys just up the road.
Male wood ducks cruising the swamp.
So….herons, egrets, swans, pelicans and wood ducks. I can’t wait until the drive opens again next June. There will be babies to photograph by then. And you just never know what else. If I time it with migration there will be hundreds of sand hill cranes, or lots of little bouncy warblers.
Just plain old Canadian geese, but still pretty.
Meanwhile I’m sure I’ll be up there a time or two to hike the trails. It’s harder to see birds in the woods, and no matter how quietly I try to walk they always hear me coming, but it’s a beautiful place on foot too.
An artsy image, just because.
If you’re ever over in my part of the world, let me know…I’ll go back up with you to see what we can see!
Thank you, Robin, for hosting Walktober again this year. I wouldn’t miss it, and I’m looking forward to seeing where everybody went on their own adventures!
In a few days it will be October. And do you know what happens in October?
Walktober!
Wait…what you say? What’s a Walktober? Well, if you’re new here you understandably need an explanation.
Years ago Robin over on her blog Breezes at Dawn started a tradition she named Walktober. She encourages everyone to go out for a walk in October, maybe take a few pictures, and then write a blog post about it and link that post to her blog. Then she collects them all and does a summary post with links to everybody’s walks. That way we all get to see where everybody went, a glimpse of their corner of the world.
Walktober has been so much fun and I always look forward to it. This year Robin has chosen October 11 through October 20 as the ‘official’ Walktober period. But if you’d like to walk prior to that, go for it. And if you need a few more days to get your post up, well, Robin is usually able to accommodate you, just let her know.
And even better, your Walktober doesn’t have to actually be a walk. It could be a bike ride, or a drive, or a kayak float down a river. You can rollerskate, or skip, or go for a run. It can be rural or urban or somewhere in between. Heck I did my Walktober in my own back yard once, and another time in downtown Detroit. Often I’ve gone out to parks to show everyone what fall looks like around here.
So think about what you’d like to show us this October. I can’t stress enough how fun this is. Everybody needs a bit of time and space to get outside during these days. You can use your Walktober to give yourself some grace or to just look around with fresh eyes. We want to see what you see.
I’m looking forward to seeing what you all come up with. Mark your calendar. Robin will post the official Walktober post closer to October 11th.
As an aside, Penny is deliberating where she should take all of you. She thinks I don’t know this, but moms are all knowing. Stay tuned.
Once upon a time there was a Ms. Hairy Woodpecker, enjoying a peaceful morning searching for a tasty insect among the late summer blossoms of a lovely garden.
Nom, nom, nom.
She was minding her own business when suddenly…
You there! You can’t hide in those leaves, Be gone!
…she realized something was coming up behind her. Why it was that silly little chipmunk!
Back away slowly or I’ll have you for lunch!
Ridiculous that this little rodent would think he could beat her to breakfast! Did he think she was a birdbrain?
Backing away, lady! If I close my eyes you’re not there!
Did he think she’d just give up her favorite feeding location to a little nim-nut like him?
She thought not!
And don’t come back here!
And the little chipmunk scurried back down the tree, toute de suite. After all, there were plenty of treats back on the ground where he belonged. He wondered what he had been thinking anyway.
Whew! That was close!
Ms. Hairy Woodpecker went back to enjoying her brunch.
The nerve of some chipmunks…
And then moved on to another favorite location that advertised being chipmunk free.
A couple evenings ago I was watching birds come and go as we were eating dinner. I noticed a flurry of activity, wings fluttering, branches of the crab apple tree bouncing around. It was happening right at the lower left corner of my view out the window.
I wasn’t sure what was happening. So I kept an eye on that spot and soon a male cardinal shot out of the tree. But the bouncing around continued.
It was a baby! I quickly googled whether cardinals had babies this late in the year. Guess what? It said they had between 3 and 4 broods a year, sometimes into mid-September.
Daddy was over at the flat feeder munching on a bunch of sunflower oil seeds. Pretty soon he zoomed back over to the crab apple tree and the youngster who had waited for his return. The flapping of wings resumed.
Daddy fed junior something (I’m guessing chewed up seed) and sat for a moment and then went back to the flat feeder for more.
Eventually daddy cardinal sat on a branch a bit away from the baby. He looked exhausted. He’s molting and he’s tired and it has been raining for days.
I hope mama cardinal is around somewhere to help so that daddy isn’t trying to do all the work alone. Of course for all I know mama is sitting somewhere else with junior #2, feeding and flying and resting and feeding….
I bet mom and dad are glad this is the last bunch of little ones to bring up! They’re probably just like human parents, glad when it’s time for the kids to get on the school bus.
It’s cooler here now, today for example, it’s 60 F and raining. It’s been cooler for several days. Most of the migrating birds have left. But I still have some hummingbirds.
They’ve been fun to watch as they battle over ‘their’ feeder. I thought all summer that I had one pair, a male and a female. How many hummers do you see in this image?
That’s the most I’ve ever seen near our feeder at one time. I hid in the corner of the living room and shot through the window. It’s hard to tell for sure how many you have when they’re flying at each other. This time, they were hungry enough to let each other eat.
They will be gone any day now. This morning I’m pretty sure there are only two. Soon I’ll be putting the feeder away, but I always leave it up for a week or so after I don’t see them anymore. You never know when a straggler will come through town, and they have such a long way to go.
I hope they have safe travels and a warm winter. And that they come back to me next spring.
Last week I was sitting on the deck in early evening. I heard a hummingbird chirping in the beech tree.
There she was, sitting on a branch in between beautifully lit pinkish leaves. She was backlit too.
It seemed as if she had just finished dinner and was sitting, fat and content, in the evening sun.
She spent a lot of time itching her head…
…and staring around, up and down and over there.
She fluffed her feathers and left them wide open in the warming sun.
Her tongue came and went. I wasn’t sure if she was catching insects…
…or just practicing tongue aerobics.
She peed four times while she was there. I guess that sugar water goes right through a girl.
And after perhaps 20 minutes of sitting and enjoying the evening light she took off.
I enjoyed watching her, and took over 300 images. She’s still flitting around the feeder but I expect she’ll be gone soon. I hope I get to visit with her once more before she goes.
Sunday, the middle day of our beautiful 3 day holiday weekend, I took Penny to a park.
Earlier in the day I had watched my favorite television show, Sunday Morning, which was filled with stories about September 11, 2001 and the fact that this year will be the twenty-fifth anniversary of that day.
It hardly seems possible that twenty-five years have gone by. I remember the details of where I was and what I was doing when that attack happened like it was just last week.
I remember hearing it first from one of the women in my department whose teen daughter was home watching TV.
She said her daughter called and while they were talking a second plane had hit. She was watching the news. We figured it was just footage of the same plane, being shown over and over, like the news does.
We figured it was a small, private plane and a terrible accident.
As the story grew my staff became more agitated and scared. My job was to keep everybody calm.
I was calling my husband who worked nights and was home asleep. He wasn’t picking up the phone. I knew he would want to know so I kept trying. Our answering machine kept asking if I wanted to leave a message. I finally did.
I told him to turn on the TV.
One woman in my department was becoming hysterical because she couldn’t get in touch with her husband who, it turns out, worked for the federal government. By then we knew the Pentagon had been hit. I thought he was working in DC. We called someone to come and get her.
Other employees who felt they needed to be at home were allowed to go.
Back then there was no TV at work, no social media, no internet at all for us to keep up with the news but family and friends called and emailed with updates. No further work was accomplished that day.
But that was OK.
We drove home that afternoon listening to our car radios, still unable to grasp the entirety of what had happened.
And though it seems like it was yesterday, there are adults in our world today that were toddlers, babies, or not even born yet who don’t have these memories, have only the stories told to them by older folk.
I imagine it feels to them something like Pearl Harbor feels to me. I know Sunday, December 7, 1941 was important. I know it changed the world, but I don’t feel it insideof me the same way I feel September 11th.
Last Sunday as Penny and I walked around a lake, enjoying the brilliant blue sky I remembered the events of that September blue sky Tuesday morning and how it changed the world.
And I hope we never see such a thing like it again. But in my heart I know that some future generation will have it’s own moment that changes everything and they will, someday, walk and contemplate history just like we do now.
